by Seth Ring
“Oh? And none of these people here would do?” Thorn said, gesturing to the crowd.
“Haha, you jest, my liege. They would not be enough to pick the food from our teeth!”
“Oh? Then let me help.”
Annoyed by the Dwarf’s smug look, Thorn took a step forward, his armor appearing around his body with a silver glare. With the next step Thorn’s helmet appeared in his hand and he bent his head to slip it on his head. As soon as his helm settled, he looked up, his armor’s red eyes flaring. A third step landed as his hand stretched out, his metal tetsubo appearing in his grasp.
Within three steps he had transformed from a gentleman of the highest noble order into a raging giant with a massive metal club. The sight was so ferocious that even the disciples who were quite familiar with him could not help but take a step back. To their credit, the members of the Stone Legion did not back up, though the legionnaires did draw their shields tighter to their body.
“Your Majesty…”
“Enough. If you wish to prove yourself to me, then ready your formations. I will not keep a bunch of useless mouths around to feed. If you cannot fight, you have no business pledging yourself to me, let alone being my guards.” Thorn took another step forward, his tetsubo whirring through the air as he spun it around his hand. “It is time to, as they say, put up or shut up.”
“As you command.” Without changing his expression, the Legion Commander slammed a fist to his chest in salute and fell back, the Stone Legion closing in around him.
The Legionnaire’s shields rose, edge to edge, forming a thick wall of stone between them and Thorn. For a moment, Thorn felt the urge to command the stone of the shields to fuse together but he resisted the thought. He was genuinely interested in seeing what the Stone Legion could do. Legion Commander Kavalas had already proved himself so it was time to see if the other members of the Legion could do the same.
“Careful,” Thorn warned, spinning his tetsubo as his gaze scanned them for weak spots.
The Legionnaires stood close together, carefully covering each other’s weaknesses. Their formation reminded Thorn of the historical records of the Roman Legion’s turtle formation. Stepping to the side, he was gratified to see them move as a single unit to keep him at their front. As Thorn took another step sideways, the Stone Legion’s formation rotated again but this time they also took a step forward, bringing themselves closer to him.
“Interesting! And here I thought you would just defend the whole time.”
Excitement rose in Thorn’s chest as he saw the tiny bit of aggression from the Dwarves. Thorn’s combat style was one of power and ferocity, so the defensive formation that the Dwarves showcased had left a bit of a sour taste in his mouth. Now, seeing them begin to move toward him before he stepped closer woke his curiosity.
“Here I come.” Thorn announced, bouncing slightly on his feet.
[Shadow Dash]
As shadows enveloped Thorn’s body and he shot forward, the Dwarves reacted exactly as he expected. The center of their formation clumped tightly together and took four quick steps backwards to create as much space as possible while the four Dwarves on the sides of the formation took steps forward, creating a neat little horseshoe trap. Not bothering to try and stop, Thorn arrived in the middle formation, his tetsubo striking out.
[Armor of the Earth]
A yellow glow rose around one of the Dwarves as he linked his shield with the Dwarves next to him. Thorn’s weapon slammed into the yellow glow, sending powerful ripples across it. For a second the ripples were so intense that the Stone Legion were not visible through the shaking shield. As the force was dispersed by the spell, the two Dwarves along the side of the formation stepped forward, jabbing with their short spears.
Thorn ignored the attacks completely, letting them skitter off of his armor as he brought his tetsubo around for a two-handed overhead chop. Looking shaken from the last attack, the Legionnaire who had blocked Thorn’s attack with his [Armor of the Earth] ability stumbled to the side, looking much worse for wear. The Stone Legion soldier who stepped into his place wasted no time, activating her copy of [Armor of the Earth] to block the overhead smash.
This time the force of the attack drove the blocking Dwarf to the ground and left her completely stunned. Kicking her out of the way, Thorn used the force of the rebound from the attack to begin his next movement, just like Master Sun had taught him. Slashing sideways, he encountered another yellow shield and his attack bounced off.
Snapping a kick to the side, he prevented the Dwarves from closing the formation and making it tighter. Despite the fact that he could easily escape from the Stone Legion’s formation whenever he wanted with either [Predator’s Leap] or [Moon’s Reflection], Thorn stayed where he was. His goal was to test out the Dwarves’ combat ability and running away would not help him.
He was about to attack again when his [Earth Sense] picked up a massive tremor in the ground quickly closing on his position. Without turning his head he was able to identify Felph from the sound of the large Dwarf’s two war hammers ringing against each other. The Stone Legion Captain was charging toward Thorn like a small rhinoceros, his weapons swinging. Noticing that Thorn had not turned around, the Dwarf roared out his challenge as he launched himself toward Thorn.
“Watch out, your Majesty, here I come!”
Amused by the way Felph announced his attack, Thorn adjusted his counter attack at the last moment, lifting his arm to block the incoming war hammers rather than using his tetsubo to bat Felph out of the air like a baseball. A sharp stinging rose in Thorn’s arm as the war hammers pounded into his arm, but it was Felph and the surrounding Legionnaires who were surprised when Thorn’s body simply did not move and the fast moving Dwarven captain bounced off of Thorn’s arm.
“Ugh!”
With the air knocked out of him, Felph stumbled backward, gulping in huge mouthfuls of air as he tried to recover. Just as he was about to get his feet under him a giant boot appeared in front of his chest, launching him through the air once again. Nodding in satisfaction as he saw the Dwarf fly, Thorn was about to turn back to the rest of the Legionnaires when a thick spike of stone stabbed up from the ground toward his stomach, announcing Earth Priestess Drada’s entrance into the fight.
Just before the spike shot up, Thorn’s [Earth Sense] had alerted him that earth energy was gathering under his feet so he was ready to block the attack with his tetsubo, but as the attack was quickly followed up by another, Thorn had to dodge to the side. As he moved, he scanned the Stone Legionnaires who were forming another formation. This time they had abandoned their spears, shifted their shields to their backs and drawn the large double-headed axes that Thorn had seen the first time he saw them outside his tent.
“For the Legion! For the Stone King!”
Roaring out their battle cry, the Stone Legion charged forward. Dressed in thick armor, each one of the Legionnaires was like a small mobile tank, and together they presented an incredibly fearsome force. Seeing them rush toward Thorn, Akira twitched in distress, causing Mina who was holding her to nearly drop her. The Stone Legion neared Thorn, their axes beginning to chop toward him, when suddenly he smiled and dismissed his weapon, disappearing from where he was in a burst of air. Landing next to Mina with a stone shaking crunch, he took off his helmet and nodded toward Legion Commander Kavalas.
“You’re not bad. I’ll grant you the responsibility of guarding my throne room. As part of the valley defense you will report to Commander Del’har while I am gone.” Ignoring the slightly offended look on Earth Priestess Drada’s face, Thorn locked eyes with the Legion Commander. “You have professed your allegiance to me, I will give you a chance to prove it. Do not disappoint me.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Well, that was scary,” Mina said in a dry voice as she walked next to Thorn toward the back of the citadel where the Iron Wolf army had set up camp.
“Really? I was safe the whole time. I still have almost all of my
bubbles.”
“I am not talking about the Dwarves. Hah, they’re not bad for natives, but any half decent player could run circles around them. Way too locked into their formations. No, I’m talking about you.” Mina glanced at Thorn from the corner of her eyes before mimicking his deep voice. “I will give you a chance to prove it. Do not disappoint me.”
“Ah, yeah,” Thorn rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I think it is my mastery coming through. It seems to add weight to what I say. Makes me more convincing.”
“Hmm. You know, I don’t think that is it.” Mina shook her head, taking a deep breath. “You’ve changed you know. Or maybe you were always like this but we just didn’t see it. Not that I am complaining at all, you know. We’ve all grown and changed since we met. I’ve certainly gotten more mature. And so have you.”
“That’s true,” Thorn said with a sigh, his gaze sweeping the crowds of players and natives at the gate.
“Like I said, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.” Mina grinned and punched Thorn’s arm lightly. “Everything and everyone changes, we just have to make sure we’re not losing sight of what is actually important. That’s the danger you know? I’ve been thinking a lot about our last team and why it fell apart. And I think it is because we lost sight of what actually matters. We got so tied up in gaining every advantage we could by any means we could that we ended up alienating everyone around us.”
“Yeah, well, betraying people for their Destiny Points will do that.”
“I’m not even talking about that. Honestly, that was the nail in the coffin, but we had already built the coffin by making ourselves hated in Ragnarok. The quad category class was our last ditch effort to stay relevant. But what is so stupid is that since we gave up that path and followed you we’ve been getting stronger and stronger. Not just because you are on this bizarre ‘chosen one’ path either. I’ve been focusing on my magic and combat again and have been improving like you would not believe. Jorge is running around like a lunatic with Oberlin, and both of them are almost at their next advance. Velin... well, just wait.”
Stopping at the edge of the Iron Wolf camp, Thorn looked down at Mina. When he first met her she had been quite chatty, but ever since they had reunified, she had been much quieter, focusing all of her attention and effort on doing her job.
“What do you think the secret is? Why is everyone advancing so fast?” Thorn asked.
“We’re playing like this is real.” After speaking, Mina turned back toward the citadel and gestured. “To you this game is real life. And because you take it so seriously, we do too. That is why the natives distrust us players, you know? Because they know travelers are fickle. But you’re treating this whole thing differently. You treat natives like you treat players, and they can tell. I think we’re learning faster because we’ve started to do the same.”
“It sounds like there is something you are not saying.”
“I don’t really have more to say.” Mina looked at Thorn and shook her head. “I just. I dunno. I feel like we’re all getting farther away from each other the more we become part of this world. I mean, Jorge is running around collecting bounties by the stack, Velin is off doing her own thing. You are Earl Greymane, the Moon Wolf, Avatar of Hati, the Stone King, and who knows what else.”
“Lord of the Earth.”
“See, that is exactly what I am talking about. Maybe I just feel like I’m being left behind.”
In all the time he had known her, Thorn had never heard Mina sound so defeated and it gave him pause. Looking at the camp in front of him, and then down at Mina, he suddenly chuckled. With a wide grin he scooped her up and placed her on his shoulder.
“Whoa, what are you doing?!”
“Hang on.”
Turning toward the citadel, Thorn began to walk up the path to the gate. His long strides soon carried him under the citadel’s portcullis and across the long stone path that led to the fortress.
“Hold on,” Thorn said to Mina, “I want to show you something.”
[Predator’s Leap]
Rocketing up into the air, Thorn grabbed the fortress wall and began to scramble upward, his incredible reach and tremendous strength allowing him to climb the outside of the fortress like a monkey. The fortress was huge, and as Thorn continued to climb, the landscape opened up under Mina’s eyes. Higher and higher they went, until they reached the throne room balcony. Grabbing the edge of the railing, Thorn pulled himself up, Mina clinging to his back.
“We’re almost there.”
Crouching slightly, Thorn launched himself up again, continuing the journey to the top of the fortress. At the very top of the fortress was a massive wolf’s head with an open mouth. A thick stream of water poured down from it, falling unbroken into the citadel below. Putting Mina down, Thorn let her scramble up the last few feet by herself. He paused, giving her the chance to turn around and take in the valley and mountains that stretched before them. Joining her on the top of the wolf’s head, Thorn sat down and took a deep breath.
The view was breathtaking in the late afternoon sun. The players and natives in the citadel were tiny dots on the ground below, and in the clear daylight they could see all the way across the valley. The ruins of Greymane Keep were a small grey smudge against the mountains at the other end of the valley, separated from them by a sea of green trees. Scattered across the valley, plumes of smoke rose from the new towns and villages like islands amidst the leafy waves.
On the roads that cut through the valley’s forest Mina could see Wolfkin workers and merchants moving goods from place to place. Everywhere she looked there was the green of nature, mixed with the peaceful activity of natives going about their day. It was almost shocking how different the scene was from the blood-filled morning she had experienced fighting Mayari in the ruins of the old Temple of the Moon.
“That’s something, isn’t it?” A happy smile spread across Thorn’s face as he looked down at the valley.
“It is very beautiful,” Mina agreed.
“It’s partly yours, you know.” Thorn gestured to the valley that spread before them. “I might hold the title, but the only way I got to this point was with your help. And Velin’s, and Corvo’s, and Jorge’s. It has been a team effort through and through, Mina. This is something that we built together, something we protect together.”
A few minutes passed as Thorn and Mina sat silently together, appreciating the beauty of Fang Valley spread out under them. Up in the sky they could see hawks and eagles flying over the valley and even higher up the large figure of Roko, Peregrine’s Imperial Roc partner, turning lazy circles as Peregrine patrolled the mountains that surrounded the valley.
“Ours, huh?” Mina sighed. “The whole time I worked for Ragnarok, everything we did was the guild’s. Or for Ouroboros.”
“But this isn’t Ragnarok and I’m not Ouroboros.” Leaning back on his hands, Thorn looked up at the mountains in the distance. “I can understand if you worry that I am becoming like him, though. Like you said, we all change. And I’ve certainly been changing. I hope I’m changing for the better, but to a certain extent, I rely on the people around me to help me know if I’m on the right path. That includes you, Mina. If you see me becoming like Ouroboros did, I’m counting on you to let me know, alright?”
After a moment of silence, Thorn looked at Mina and smiled. His eyes held a clear, sincere look, unclouded by any worries.
“Everything changes, Mina, and we’re going to change along with it. I’m happy that our relationship has been able to change and grow, and I have no doubt that it will continue to change and grow the longer we know each other.”
“So you’re not mad at us anymore?” Mina had trouble meeting Thorn’s gaze, but finally she mustered up the courage to lift her head.
“I have not been mad at you for a really long time. You have more than shown through your actions that you really do value our friendship, so why would I allow our relationship to be defined by a single action? We def
ine our relationship every time we interact, Mina, and from what I see, we’re on a great trajectory.”
As Thorn’s words were carried off by the breeze, Mina released a long breath, as if she was breathing out the weight, burdens, and worries that had weighed her down ever since she had walked away from Thorn’s body in Hati's Ascent. Lifting her gaze up to the blue sky, a genuinely happy smile spread across her face.
“Oh man, you have no idea how glad I am to hear that.” Bouncing to her feet, she spread her arms wide and whirled around. “Whew. Like, no joke, I’ve been worried this whole time that you were still holding it against us, and that is why you have been getting more and more distant. Velin told me that it was only because you were busy and you were taking the game seriously, but I thought it might be because we had ruined any chance of really being friends.”
“At first I think I was still pretty wary.”
“That makes sense, you know,” Mina nodded sagely. “I mean, we really screwed you over. And we did it by choice. I could probably blame Ouroboros, but at the end of the day I still made the decision to try and freeze your head off. I can’t tell you how freeing it is to find out that you really have completely forgiven me. Forgiven us.”
“Just don’t do it again,” Thorn chuckled.
“Haha, you got it boss. I know you have a ton to do before we leave for the military camp, so we should get going. Thanks for showing me your special spot, Thorn.” The wide smile returned to Mina’s face. “Velin’s going to be jealous when I tell her.”
Standing, Thorn stretched his body and walked to the edge to look down at the Citadel spread beneath their feet.
“You sure you don’t want to tell me what is going on with Velin?”
“Nah, she’d be really mad. It’ll be a great surprise.” Joining Thorn at the edge of the wolf’s head, Mina glanced at him slyly. “Race you down?”